Conical Cooling

[des1]

Problem: how do I keep my temperature below 70 in the conical? Below is a picture of the temperature the first night of fermentation. The conical reached 85 degrees before going back to ambient of 76.


Come up with a cost effective solution to stay below 70 when the ambient temp is around 75.
Options:
1. Cool from outside
a. Buy a refrigerator that the conical can fit in. - Don't have the room or want to lift the conical.
b. Buy 4 peltier cooling fans, aluminum blocks, power supply, etc - Cost between $400-500.
2. Cool from the inside
a. Build a system using Peltier and stainless steel coil.

Below is my first attempt and initial dry run. I have 13 gallons in the conical and have been able to keep the temperature at 67 degrees without any major problem (System froze twice, so ordered glycol). I will try to cold crash this and see if I can get it down to the high 40s. The Beerbug has been great to track the ambient temperature. You can tell when the system is on since the ambient temperature goes from 76 to the 80s. See graph later



Here is the final setup. I have a RIMS system, so was able to leverage the PID controller and set to cool. The Set Temperature is 67 and current temp is 67. They system is running during the picture.

Components:
1. $55 - Stainless Steel Coil 25 ft
2. $10 - Water Pump
3. $12 - Peltier Chip
4. $13 - Water Cooling Block
5. $26 - Power Supply 360W
6. $35 - PID temperature controller - I used my PID from the RIMS system
7. $29 - CPU Fan
8. $14 - Thermal Paste
9. Power strip
10. Quick connects for 3/8 tubing
11. 18 Gauge Wire and old power cable to attach to Power supply
12. Brackets to clamp water block, peltier and CPU fan.


Above you can see the water block, peltier chip and CPU cooling fan. This may be overkill on CPU fan, but looks like it does a good job taking the heat away and efficient cooling. The Quick connect 3/8 were added so I can store easily.


I had purchased a different top for my conical that had a 1.5 and 2 inch opening. I was able to leverage the 2 to have the stainless steel coils go through the stopper and connected to the quick connects. The flow goes from the cooler via the pump to the coils then to the water box and back to the cooler. I have had the system freeze on me twice so far, so I am going to add 50% Glycol. This will prevent any chance of freezing.



Graph of Ambient temperature. You can see when the system is on. I have the PID set at 67 degrees with HY set at 1 and time intervals at 60 seconds. The internal temperature was between 66 and 68 degrees.

The Peliter is almost 140 watts, so need the appropriate power supply. The one I purchased did not come with any power connector, so used an old PC cord. Below is the wiring. Left side has the power inputs (Black, White, Green) and the left 6 screws are for the 12 V output. Since I had to power the Peltier, Pump, and CPU Fan I just used one terminal for each. Fan on 1 and 4, Pump on 2 and 5, and Peliter on 3 and 6.



Finally, it would be good to have the stainless steel coil welded to the conical top. I have been in contact with Stout Tanks and they are looking into building a top. Also, the fan on the power supply is loud, so it would be good to find a better option.

All in all, this has been a fun exercise and worth the $200.

 

[mredge73]

If you have an old computer lying around it would be cool to put all of this inside the case.
A computer power supply can generally supply over 200w on the 12v bus and they utilize large fans that are not very loud.
The waterblock with the pelter cooler would fit where the MOBO used to be. Use hydraulic QDs for hooking it together.
You would have to use a smaller water reservoir but other that than everything should fit.

Good job, I never thought that you would be able to get the temp down with a pelter.